Read full description of the books:

This book is the best concrete example I have of why Goodreads needs to add an option for giving a book multiple reviews.

Many of us read books more than once. We read at different times in our lives. We read books in different ways.

Because of that, we have different opinions of the books we read as time passes.

When I first read this book, I was teaching a children's literature class. In that context, I loved it because it talked about emotions without pandering to kids, without being gooey or cutesy or saccharine.

I really liked seeing the message, "Sometimes people are sad. It happens all the time. That's okay. I admired the book for being rare and honest.

But that was years ago...

Just a couple days ago, I brought out this book to read it to my boy. Most of what I remembered about the book is that it was touching and honest. I thought it would be a good stepping off point that I could use to have a discussion with my boy.

What I didn't remember is that in this book, the author talks about the death of his son.

It's central to what he's talking about. He mentions it right at the beginning of the story, saying he's sad a lot because his boy is dead. He wishes he could talk to his mom about it, but she's dead too.

When I first read this book, I didn't have any kids. I was able to appreciate the frank honesty of the book.

This time when I read the book, I did so while sitting next to my own son. And the first page hit me like a bucket of cold water. Like I'd been punched in the gut.

I tried to read it to my boy on the fly, paraphrasing and skipping over the fact that the reason the man was sad is that his son had died. But it was too central to the story, eventually, I just gave up and suggested we read a different book.

I'm not opposed to talking to my son about death. But I wasn't ready for it right then. And I don't think at the age of 5 it's really productive to discuss it in terms of how badly his death would ruin me emotionally.

So... yeah. Is this a great book? Yes. Absolutely. It's honest and emotional. But reading it now, as a father, I don't enjoy it nearly as much, and I don't think it's a good book for young children, despite it being in picture book format.

I wish goodreads had some sort of mechanism for me to record my two different reviews of this book, both different, both equally valid, but from two different times in my life. This is something I've wanted to do on this site for a long time, but this book has made me pointedly aware of that desire again.

Good books are not simple things, and our responses to them are not simple either. They change over time. If goodreads is to be genuinely useful to people, I think it needs some way to reflect that.

Read information about the author

Michael Rosen, a recent British Children’s Laureate, has written many acclaimed books for children, including WE'RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, and I’M NUMBER ONE and THIS IS OUR HOUSE, both illustrated by Bob Graham. Michael Rosen lives in London.